Small businesses are spending more on IT procurement than necessary due to short-term thinking and a lack of computing knowledge, according to a new report.
The report, commissioned by printer manufacturer Brother, suggest that small firms often bought cheap hardware to make short-term savings but brief lifecycles meant that the costs were greater in the long term. Another reason buying lower quality hardware was a false economy, the tech journalists, bloggers and analysts who contributed to the report asserted, was that higher quality equipment could ultimately boost productivity and therefore revenues.
The report attributed the misallocation of IT spend largely to the fact that whereas large corporations have IT directors responsible for IT strategy, few SMEs appointed a specialist and the those procuring hardware often had scant computing expertise.
Phil Jones, sales and marketing director of Brother UK, says: “SMEs need to stop and think before making IT purchasing decisions.
Small-business owners really need to consider a wide range of factors, including lifecycle costs, reliability and support
Phil Jones, Brother sales and marketing director
“Buying cheapest isn’t necessarily best. Small-business owners really need to consider a wide range of factors, including lifecycle costs, reliability and support. Failing to do so could be costing them hundreds of pounds every year.
“For example, most companies automatically think that taking environmental issues into account will bump up costs, but good environmental practice can actually save businesses money.”
Brother has also produced a set of videos in which leading tech journalist Gordon Kelly discusses the challenges faced by SMEs when purchasing IT.
The report and accompanying videos purport to help time-poor SMEs improve their approach to IT, both in technology and peripherals purchasing, as well as procurement planning and training employees.
